Entries by medalquest

At the White House

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama hosted more than 200 Olympians and Paralympians at the White House this afternoon. Among the athletes in attendance were Paralympic skier Tatyana McFadden, wheelchair curler Jimmy Joseph, and the entire U.S. sled hockey team.

President Obama congratulated the athletes on the 46 medals Team USA brought home from Sochi, calling special attention to Declan Farmer’s three goals scored to help the U.S. sled hockey team win its second consecutive gold medal. At the end of the event, the President and First Lady were presented with Olympic and Paralympic flags signed by the athletes.

Best of U.S. Awards Show

Outstanding Paralympians and Olympians from 2014 Winter Games in Sochi were honored last night at the inaugural "Best of U.S." Awards Show, held at the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C. Presented by the United States Olympic Committee, the awards were decided by fan voting on the Team USA Facebook page.

Skier Mark Bathum won as Best Male Paralympian for his silver medal performances in both men’s super-G and super combined events (visually impaired). Eighteen-year-old skier and first-time Paralympian Stephanie Jallen took home two awards, for Best Female Paralympian and for Moment of the Games. When Jallen won bronze medals in women’s super-G — her first Paralympic event ever — and in women’s super combined (standing), her joyous reaction lit up the medals ceremonies.

And our ICE WARRIORS were voted "Team of the Games" for winning historic back-to-back gold medals as they defeated the home team, Russia, in their home arena.

1. 10-time Summer medalist Tatyana McFadden (above, left) won our hearts by taking silver in the women’s nordic 1km
sprint (sitting) after less than a year of winter training – and by doing it in
front of both her Russian birth mother and the adoptive family who brought her
up. Watching her win – and her grimace as she realized she’d come within a
fraction of a fraction of a second of gold – suggests she’ll be back and
gunning in the next Winter Games. Her
sit-ski teammate Oksana Masters earned two medals, a silver and a bronze.

2. The new sport
of snowboard cross was a chance for Team USA to reaffirm the sheer American-ness
of this sport. Led by Evan Strong (above), the US men swept the podium, and Amy Purdy brought home a women’s bronze, with two
teammates right behind her in fourth and fifth places.

Two weeks ago, the Sochi 2014 Paralympic flame was
extinguished, dramatically, in a bowl of ice. The Paralympic flag was handed
over to South Korea, the next host for the Winter Games.

The 2014 Games began under a cloud that was
eerily reminiscent of the past. In the 1980
Summer Games, the US withdrew its athletes from competition in protest of the
Soviet incursion into Afghanistan. America was joined by Japan, West Germany,
China, Canada, and other nations.

It’s just an expression used to describe a top win –
“bringing home the gold.” But there’s a literal meaning to those words, as the
USA Sled Hockey team discovered, and it’s pretty wonderful, too.

For Brody Roybal, it meant arriving home in Northlake, Illinois,
to find hundreds of people in front his house chanting “USA! USA!” The crowd included family, friends,
complete strangers, news reporters, and his West Leyden High School classmates.
Just before leaving for Sochi, Brody had promised his school to do his best to
“bring home the gold.” Mission accomplished.

Closing Ceremony

Ten days ago, at the Opening Ceremony for the Sochi
Paralympics, Sir Philip Craven, President of the International Paralympic
Committee, called these Games “proof that what might not seem possible IS
possible.”

So it was fitting that tonight’s Closing Ceremony was titled
“Reaching the Impossible.” The
idea was brought to life in a sequence patterned on a video game, propelled by
dancers moving giant multi-color blocks. Suddenly, the blocks rose to form the word IMPOSSIBLE as a countdown
clock reached zero and “GAME OVER” flashed.

Sled Hockey: Post-Win Interview

· After every game, players line up and bump fists with
their opponents, acknowledging the win, the loss, the game. Rico Roman (#23) was
struck by a moment after the gold medal match: “One of the Russian players,
they’re ex-military, too, one of them said, ‘Good job, soldier.’ That meant a lot.”

· Gold medals are heavy -
more than a pound and a half in total, shards of
thick reflective glass set in a silver core and 24 karat gold exterior. The imagery engraved on them represents the sun's rays reflected through snowy mountains, and the temperate Black Sea coast
next to Sochi’s icy peaks. The American players were holding on tightly
to theirs, but also sharing:
“Would you like to wear it?” So ICE WARRIORS can attest to how great
that weight feels hanging around your neck.

· Team USA was jubilant
after the Games, and ICE WARRIORS was there as they got on their bus back to
the hotel. We’d heard them, many
times over the months we’d filmed the team, cheering “ USA! USA!” before and after games. Now they were saluting each other: “BROOODY!!” “ JOSHHH!!!” And then, to the ICE WARRIORS team’s
amazement, they cheered us: “PBS! PBS!” We were humbled.

Sled Hockey Fans

Sled Hockey Final: USA vs Russia

The most important game of their lives, for both Team USA And Team Russia, came down to just one goal. Josh Sweeney (#13), who put that goal in the net, said he knew the Russian goalie, Vladimir Kamantcev, was a big presence in goal. So when Sweeney made a fast steal from a Russian defender, he did a little fake-out move, got Kamantcev to commit, and shot past him. It was enough. Team USA is bringing home gold, the first sled hockey team ever to win back-to-back gold medals.

Men and Women's Snowboarding

Snowboarding made its official debut at the Paralympics, and
Americans bagged four of the six medals.

The American men swept all the medals in their event, with Evan Strong winning gold, coming in less than a second faster than silver
medalist Michael Shea. Bronze winner
Keith Gabel said, “The clean sweep is an honor. It’s a stupendous moment.”

And Team USA’s Amy Purdy came in third in the women’s event,
behind boarders from Netherlands and France.
Purdy, who had earlier blogged about tough conditions on the Rosa Khutor
alpine center, said conditions ranged
from “icy slush to wet slush.” Today the
course was so bumpy, she added, “It was all about staying on my feet” and
“riding smart.”

Sled hockey goalie Steve Cash has been chosen by his 80 teammates to carry the flag for the US Paralympic Team at the Closing Ceremony on Sunday. US Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun pointed out that Steve was the team MVP in the Vancouver 2010 Winter Paralympics, where USA Hockey won gold. He called Cash "a trusted leader and friend to not only his teammates, but all U.S. Paralympic athletes," and added "We certainly wish him and the rest of the team the best of luck as they take on Russia for the gold medal tomorrow night – Go Team USA.”

USA vs CANADA

Game 4 of the 2014 Paralympic sled hockey competition could
not have been more highly anticipated. The
US and Canadian teams have battled so often and so hard, the players know their
opponents almost as well as they know their teammates. In the 2013 World Championships, Canada came
out on top, and they beat the Americans again in Toronto later in the year. But the US won the last two match-ups, in
January, before heading to the Paralympics.

The stage was set for tonight’s game, a must-win for Team
USA to keep their gold medal hopes alive after Tuesday’s tough loss to Russia.

Everyone on Team USA knew that Game 4 was a must-win to keep their gold medal hopes alive after Tuesday’s tough loss to Russia. Both the Americans and the Canadians came out with tremendous focus and a lot of scrappy play, but Declan Farmer scored first for the US 9:12 into the game, then again at the end of the period.

Five minutes into the second, Farmer notched an assist as he found Josh Pauls, who shot and brought the score to 3-0. Canada was fired up in the third, trying hard to score, but Steve Cash played another perfect game, stopping all eleven shots on goal. Team USA is headed for a rematch against Russia in the gold-medal finals on Saturday night.

Tatyana McFadden (left) added to her Paralympic record (10 Summer medals) by winning silver in the women's 1km cross-country sprint. Less than a year after pushing off for the first time in her cross country sit-skis, she came within a tenth of a second of the gold, won by Norway's Mariann Narthinsen. The 1km sprint consists of a qualification (Tatyana came in 4th), a semifinal (she came in 2nd), and a final.

In
curling, quitting can be good. But to understand why, you need a whole new vocabulary.

The playing field, called a “sheet,” has round targets painted
on its two ends. The whole target is
called the “house,” and the bulls-eye is called the “button.”

When all eight stones of an “end,” or inning, have been thrown,
the team closest to the center of the button gets a point. If that team has two
stones closer – and these things are measured! – they get two points.

There’s even a term for that perfect situation when all eight
stones delivered by one team are closer to the center – a “snowman.” This is tough to achieve, since the other team is using its throws to
knock your stones away.

Team USA Curling

With wins under their belts from the first two games, Team
USA knew they would be in the semi-finals.
Team Russia, with a 1-1 record, did not.
So both teams came to skate hard in a game that was ultimately decided
in the final minutes of play.

Well before the first period ended, though, the game was
already historic. At 11:57 Russian
forward Ilia Volkov scored, breaking Steve Cash’s perfect record – no goals were
scored against him in the past seven Paralympic Games, stretching back to Game
1, Vancouver, 2010. Both Andy Yohe and
Paul Schaus were in the penalty box at the time, giving the Russians a two-man
edge that they quickly took advantage of.

Another goal in the second put Russia up 2-0, and although
Team USA took more than twice as many shots on goal as Team Russia, goalie
Vladimir Kamantcev made stop after stop, ending with 22 saves. As Adam Page said, Kamantcev “played the game
of his life.”

Women's Alpine: Super G

It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day at the Rosa Khutor
Alpine Center. The crowds that packed
the stands to watch the women’s super G racing were hardly bundled up at all,
having a great time.

Not so much for the skiers. Of the 29 women who started the three super G races, ten did not
finish.

Most seriously injured were two Americans, who were both helicoptered
off the slopes, Alana Nichols and Stephani Victor. Late in the day, Alana posted on Facebook: “I am just fine. I was knocked unconscious and
had to have stitches in my chin, but feel incredibly blessed to have left the
mountain today in the shape I am in.” She added that Stephani was also banged up but ok.

“Shayba” is a great name for a hockey venue: it means “puck” in Russian. In the Olympic Park, the Shayba Hockey Arena
is perfectly round, has a flat roof, and is covered in ice blue and tan diagonal
streaks – the perfect image of its name. Apparently, “Shaybu!” is also what Russian fans chant to support their
team.

But not so far, at least at Team USA’s games. Yesterday, in the USA vs. Italy match, a
surprising number of people in the crowd were waving Russia flags but had
Italy’s red, white, and green colors painted on their faces and were cheering
for Italy. At today’s game against
Team Korea, the Russians were yelling, “KO-REE-AAA!!”

But as team captain Andy Yohe told ICE WARRIORS, “As long as
the crowd is cheering, we don’t care who they’re cheering for.”

Bagpipes and drums – not what you’d expect in Russian sports. But that’s how the Paralympic curling
matches began today, with two pipers and two drummers, in kilts, marching in
stately procession along the baseline and right up the middle of the ice.

Competition for the curlers began yesterday at the Ice Cube
Curling Center. The first six days
are a round-robin tournament among the ten national teams; the top four teams
go on to the semi-finals. To fit
in all 45 games, the schedule is tight, with teams playing every day (sometimes
two games a day) and three or four teams playing simultaneously.

Up in the mountains at the Rosa Khutor alpine center, three
Americans made it to the podium on the first day of alpine skiing.

In the women’s
standing class, Allison Jones won bronze, her first Winter medal since taking a
gold in slalom in 2006. Allison was
totally upbeat after the race. “I came
here to have fun,” she said, “and I’ve had a blast.”

All eight teams of the 2014 Paralympic sled hockey
competition played today, on Day One of the Games.

One of the games was a blowout, with Canada grinding down
Sweden, 10-1.

One was a nail-biter:
Korea stunned Russia with a 3-2 shootout victory that was the
tournament’s first upset.

One was a close-fought 3-2 win, Norway over Czechoslovakia,
with the Norwegian goalie making 21 saves.

And then there was USA Sled Hockey’s 5-1 win
over the Italians. The Americans, as
defending gold medalists, were favored to win, but they might not have expected
how that win would unfold. Three of the
five goals were made by its youngest players. Late in the first period, 16-year-old Declan
Farmer ignited the team with its first goal of the Games, and 15-year-old Brody
Roybal scored in both the second and third periods, once off an assist from
Declan.

Sled Hockey: USA vs. ITALY

Opening Ceremonies

· Precision marchers in red, white, and blue
stepping in and out of each others’ lines, weaving intricate patterns and
ultimately forming the Russian flag – and then bending in sequence to make the
“flag” wave. Later in the program, the
marchers came back in blue, green and red to march again, this time forming the
three Paralympic agitos – the name for the “swooshes” that make up the Paralympic
logo.

· A giant icebreaker – really huge! – making its
stately way across the Olympic Stadium.
Hundreds of dancers with ice “shards” scattered as it plowed across,
symbolizing the Sochi Paralympics’ goal of breaking down barriers for people
with disabilities.

· And, of course, the arrival of Team USA in 2014’s
distinctive “ugly Christmas” sweaters. The
US athletes looked ready to roll, with competitions in curling, sled hockey,
biathlon, and alpine skiing starting tomorrow!

Transformation

Opening Ceremonies for the 2014 Paralympics are over, and in
many ways they were just fabulous – lights, sounds, hundreds of dancers and
acrobats, flying ladies and computer graphics, fireworks inside and out of the
Fisht Olympic Stadium.

Overshadowing the 2014 Paralympics has been, and still is,
the question of Ukraine. With the threat
of a Russia-Ukraine war hanging and world leaders scrambling, the Ukrainian
delegation was torn: Should they
withdraw in protest, or stay and compete in the Paralympic spirit of
neutrality?

This afternoon, just hours before the Opening Ceremonies,
the announcement came: the delegation
would participate. In a press
conference, Valeriy Suskevich, Ukraine’s head of Paralympics, made a point of
saying, “Don’t let us start a war during the Paralympic Games,” but he also
promised his delegation would leave immediately if there was more conflict.

So there was a moment of real drama when Ukraine was
announced in tonight’s parade of athletes – and only one person emerged into
the stadium wearing Ukraine’s distinctive blue and yellow. Flag bearer Mykhailo Tkachenko, a biathlon
athlete, wheeled his way across the stage with a somber expression on his
face. The crowd erupted in huge cheers –
the only cheers that were louder were for their own Russian delegation – but Tkachenko
never waved or acknowledged the crowd.

ICE WARRIORS cameraman Scott Sinkler setting up for today's opening ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games. New video will be part of the revised version of ICE WARRIORS, including the USA sled hockey's team performance in Sochi. In the meantime we will be sending photos and news every day. Follow us and share!

4 hours to Opening Ceremonies, and news reports say Ukraine's delegation will not withdraw from the Paralympic Games. The International Paralympic Committee's president, Sir Philip Craven, who will preside over tonight's opening celebrations, was quoted as saying "The talking point of Sochi 2014 needs to be great sport and great athletes, not global politics." The team will leave if there is an escalation of military conflict.

MEDAL QUEST will be sending pictures and reporting from the Fisht Stadium in Sochi later today, after the Paralympic flame is lit and the Games are officially started.

MEDAL QUEST dropped in today at the official first press conference of Sochi 2014, a chance for Russian organizers to discuss what they called “barrier-free standards for the whole of Russia.” This would be huge for any host country, but especially for Russia, which hasn’t had a strong record on accessibility. In fact Russia (then the Soviet Union) did not even host a Paralympic Games after the 1980 Olympics.

Also announced:

· All 45 national teams have arrived in Russia, a record for the Winter Games. That includes Ukraine’s team, although it’s still not clear if they will withdraw before tomorrow’s Opening Ceremonies.

· 547 -- the total number of athletes expected -- is also a Paralympic Winter Games record.

· Around 60 countries will broadcast the Paralympics, including new broadcasters NHK Japan, Rede Globo Brazil, and NBC USA.

USA Hockey’s Josh Pauls, who was part of the press conference, talked with ICE WARRIORS about being back at the Paralympics, what was different from Vancouver, and how awesome the Shayba Arena will be for the sled hockey competition. Here’s Josh:

We stopped by practice today to see Team USA get ready for the Games. They went flat out for the whole time, racing around in speed laps, doing shooting exercises at both ends of the rink with Jen Lee and Steve Cash both in goal, working 40-second 5-on-5 drills from faceoffs, stopping only to swig water and listen to Coach Jeff Sauer.

ICE WARRIORS’ photographer was there -- and included in these exclusive pictures are first views of Steve and Jen’s newly-painted goalie helmets. It’s a tradition that Paralympic and Olympic goalies re-paint their helmets as they want for the Games.

Practicing Before the Games

IN ROSA KHUTOR

As we came down the mountains, we stopped for a moment in Rosa Khutor, a village squeezed into a narrow valley at the base of the mountains. Music was blaring and we walked into an outdoor party – a stage with folk singers and dancers, people enjoying themselves on a warm evening – at least 60 degrees F! Here are a few pictures.

Two Worlds

Here in Russia, the Games are a world in themselves, set off and apart. Or maybe two worlds, to be more accurate: the “coastal cluster,” where the Fisht Olympic Stadium is and where sled hockey and wheelchair curling will be played, and the “mountain cluster,” where nordic skiing, alpine skiing, and biathlon will be held.

The ICE WARRIORS team is in Sochi, where the Olympic Park is very quiet, waiting for teams and fans to arrive. The "HOT COLD YOURS" signs are still up to welcome the athletes, but the Paralympic "swooshes" have replaced the Olympic rings on the buildings.

And our flight from Moscow included a group from Finland's wheelchair curling team, very friendly.

9 September 2012 - The last day of the Paralympics was a wrap-up day, just a few events. But the US went out on a strong note: Wheelchair rugby cruised to a 53-43 win in their final match, bringing home the bronze, and in the women’s marathon (T54), Team USA’s Shirley Reilly won gold.

8 September 2012 - Today was the last full day of competition, and the MEDAL QUEST team and I were drawn to Track and Field again. We were especially watching the preliminary heats for the women’s 100m (T-54) wheelchair race to see the McFadden sisters, Tatyana and Hannah, sprinting head to head.

3 September 2012 - Yesterday’s play ended so late at the Olympic Stadium, I didn’t have the energy to write. But there was a dramatic race that took place that evening, made even more dramatic after the competition, so I thought I’d recap.

2 September 2012 - London’s normal rains came back today, slowing down the outdoor events. Paralympic athletes compete in the rain, of course, just as able-bodied athletes do. But sometimes conditions get slick or dangerous, and the very strict Paralympic competition timetables slip.

1 September, 2012 - It’s hard to explain how much goes on so quickly at the Games. In some venues, like swimming, there’s only one pool, of course, so the races take place one after the other, with just very short breaks in between them.

1 September 2012 - The MEDAL QUEST team has media credentials, which means we can enter the stadiums at special entrances. It’s all very carefully controlled: security screens our camera bags every time we enter the park, and volunteers check the tags around our necks to enter the stadium, to get to shooting positions, to get around to a new place to work, at every door and gate.

31 August, 2012 - Another beautiful day in London. I’ve been surprised every day when the sun shines, after the soggy wet spring and early summer Britain had. Fingers crossed that the weather holds as the Track and Field and Soccer events are starting!

29 August 2012 midnight+ London Timeby Judith Vecchione, for MEDAL QUESTOpening Ceremonies for the London 2012 Paralympics ended an hour ago, and they were amazing. I could pick out one moment after another that was tremendous:

Less than a half hour to the Opening Ceremonies! Last night, the Paralympic torch was created from four flames ignited on the highest peaks of England, Scotland,Wales and Northern Ireland. Joined together in Stoke Mandeville, where the Games originated in 1948, over the last twenty-four hours, 116 teams of 5 people have run, rolled, and carried the flame the 92 miles to and through London.

Last night the athletes of Team USA selected their 2012 flag bearer for 2012 -- 5-time Paralympian Scott Danberg, who competes in discus this year and also has competed in shot put. On Thursday morning, US swimmer Trischa Zorn, the most decorated Paralympian of all times - 51 medals, 37 of them gold! - will be inducted into the Paralympics Hall of fame.

As you know, MEDAL QUEST will be reporting live
from London starting next Monday, two days before Opening Ceremonies. We’ll have descriptions of what’s happening
and what it feels like to be there cheering, photos from the arenas, stats like
who won and how fast they went, more -- and we’ll be posting new video every
day after the Games start.

Starting next Monday, MEDAL QUEST will be
blogging live from the London 2012 Games.
We’re really excited to be going, to share with you our experiences and the
experiences of the amazing Team USA Paralympians.

Swimmer Jessica Long won 3 gold medals at the Athens Paralympics at age 12. Then she won 4 gold medals, a silver and a bronze in Beijing at age 16, setting 3 new world records – and she still felt she’d failed.

MEDAL QUEST kicks off with
an introduction to “the best athletes in the world” – the elite athletes of the
Paralympic Games. Competing in sports as
different as wheelchair basketball, archery, judo, cycling, and more, these
American athletes personify the grit, the strategy, and the skill it takes to
go for the gold.

Blake Leeper talks about
the intense level of competition in Paralympic sports and how he stacks up
against two of the biggest names in racing: South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius, and America’s
Jerome Singleton.

Paralympic cyclist Greta Neimanas takes us through her "full time job" – the tough training for the Games. It's a roller-coaster of ups and downs, with days that are “grueling” and some that are "effortless."

The London Paralympic organizers
are preparing now for the Games, finishing the buildings, planning the
ceremonies. Every time the athletes
gather, the fireworks are bigger and the competitions are intense.